She looked at me frankly, her eyes cleared of the mist. “Were you indeed thinking hopefully just now? You appeared so grave I feared it was despair.”
“It was a mixture of both, Mrs. Brennan. My own known condition furnishes sufficient despair, while Caton's excessive happiness yields a goodly measure of joy, which I have not yet entirely lost. Nothing glorifies life, even in its darkest hour, as the success of love.”
She glanced at my face shyly. “Undoubtedly the Lieutenant is in the seventh heaven at present,” she admitted slowly. “His Celia has led him a merry chase these many months, before she made full surrender; but that merely makes final victory the sweeter.”
“She retains the disposition of a child.”
“But the heart of a woman is back of all her playfulness. You are upon your way home?”
“I have just been paroled, Mrs. Brennan, After four years of war I am at last free, and have turned my face toward all that is left of my childhood's home,—a few weed-grown acres. I scarcely know whether I am luckier than the men who died.”
I saw the tears glistening again in her earnest eyes. “Oh, but you are, Captain Wayne,” she exclaimed quickly. “You have youth and love to inspire you—for your mother yet lives. Truly it makes my heart throb to think of the upbuilding which awaits you men of the South. It is through such as you—soldiers trained by stern duty—that these desolated States are destined to rise above the ashes of war into a greatness never before equalled. I feel that now, in this supreme hour of sacrifice, the men and women of the South are to exhibit before the world a courage greater than that of the battlefield. It is to be the marvel of the nation, and the thought and pride of it should make you strong.”
“It may indeed be so; I can but believe it, as the prophecy comes from your lips. I might even find courage to do my part in this redemption were you ever at hand to inspire.”
She laughed gently. “I am not a Virginian, Captain Wayne, but a most loyal daughter of the North; yet if I so inspire you by my mere words, surely it is not so far to my home but you might journey there to listen to my further words of wisdom.”
“I have not forgotten the permission already granted me, and it is a temptation not easily cast aside. You return North soon?”